How Women in the Southern Baptist Convention Have Fought for Decades to Be Ordained

When leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention meet during their annual gathering in Nashville, Tennessee, in June 2021, the issue of three women being ordained to ministry will likely be an intense topic of conversation. Convention leaders had decried the moves in May by Saddleback Church, in Lake Forest, California – one of the denomination’s largest churches – as a violation of biblical teaching and the Southern Baptist Convention’s stance on women in ministry.

As someone who was ordained as a Southern Baptist minister in 1993, I know that opposition to women’s ordination has always existed, but many denominational leaders, seminaries and local churches have supported the practice.

For Southern Baptists, ordination is an affirmation of a call to ministry that enables the church in its work in the world. Ordination recognizes a person’s calling and gifts for leadership and allows people to carry out certain ministerial duties such as being a pastor, administering communion, performing baptisms and officiating weddings. It does not necessarily bestow any religious authority. Read More